Little known facts about PET plastic

·PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is actually polyester. When PET is used in bottles, containers and other applications, it is called PET or PET resin. When PET is used as a fiber, it is often referred to as polyester.

·The PET bottle was invented by DuPont engineer Nathaniel C. Wyeth, brother of American painter Andrew Wyeth. The patent was granted to Wyeth in 1973 and assigned to DuPont.

·According to the EPA, recycling one pound of PET bottles (that is, about 10 two-liter soda bottles) saves about 26,000 BTUs of energy.

·PET bottles and the sun are helping millions of people in developing countries get drinking water. Using a system called SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection), residents leave water-filled PET bottles in the sun for hours or days - depending on the amount of sunlight available - as a simple but effective way to destroy disease-causing bacteria and access to safe drinking water.

·Over 1.5 billion pounds of used PET bottles and containers are collected for recycling in the United States each year. PET is the most recycled plastic in the United States and the world.

·A single-use PET bottle (0.5 liter) is strong enough to hold 50 times its weight in water.

·Chemists are always looking for new ways to make PET lighter without losing any strength. A 2-liter PET bottle that weighed 68 grams in 1980 now weighs just 42 grams. The average weight of a single-serving 0.5-liter PET water bottle is now 9.9 grams, almost half of what it was in 2000.

·Woven, knitted, and braided PET fibers are sometimes used by surgeons to implant sutures, cardiovascular patches, and wound repair meshes due to PET's biostability and durability.

·More than 150 U.S. colleges and universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Michigan State University and Wake Forest University, are using graduation caps and gowns made from 100% recycled PET.

·Americans recycle more than 1 million single-use PET water bottles every hour.